Fold3 observes the War of 1812 bicentennial with rich and revealing historical documents within the War of 1812 Collection. They include the War of 1812 Prize Cases from New York's Southern District Court, Letters Received by the Adjutant General, and War of 1812 Service Records for Lake Erie and Mississippi, and the War of 1812 Pension Files.

These records are not indexed. The best method for finding an ancestor is to consult the HELP file for each set of records. There you will find an itemized list of what is on each microfilm reel. This will help you narrow your search but be prepared to spend some time scrolling through the pages.

I spent some time on the Claims for Losses microfilm on Sunday and can tell you that there are some names indexed starting at image 272 on microfilm t-1123.

You can also consult Olive Tree Genealogy War of 1812 section as there are some smaller databases online. These include several Canadian Muster Rolls, Lists of widow's receiving Canadian pensions, property losses, prisoners of war and more.

[FN] How can both sides claim they won the War of 1812? Easy. In a nutshell: USA won the Battle of New Orleans, the last battle of the war. America claims a win based on this battle. But it was fought after peace was declared. Thus Britain (and Canada) claim the win overall. As well, America never realized its objective to "annex" Canada, therefore that would in military and political circles be considered a loss.

Spoiler alert: The article begins with "In a relatively rare admission for an American scholar, a leading U.S.
historian who authored a provocative new tome about North American
military conflicts states bluntly that Canada won the War of 1812."

Of course I'm not objective. Being a Canadian I believe that we won the war. But whoever won, we all lost many soldiers and civilians in some horrific battles. It is easy to perceive a War as "romantic" when in reality war is a horrible event. But nonetheless it happened and as genealogists we are naturally curious to know if one of our ancestors was involved and to what extent. Hopefully some of the databases that are being offered online will assist us in that quest.

1 comment:

Great post on the War of 1812 and resources for genealogy! The Illinois State Genealogical Society is asking for help in digitizing 7.2 million War of 1812 Pension File images and making them free to the public. Here is how you can help: http://ilgensoc.org/cpage.php?pt=268

New!

Death Finds a Way: A Janie Riley Mystery by Lorine McGinnis SchulzeJanie Riley is an avid genealogist with a habit of stumbling on to dead bodies. She and her husband head to Salt Lake City Utah to research Janie's elusive 4th great-grandmother. But her search into the past leads her to a dark secret. Can she solve the mysteries of the past and the present before disaster strikes?

I'm an incurable collector of
antiques, an avid genealogist and a messy but creative cook! I blog, i write history and genealogy books. My main genealogy website is Olive Tree Genealogy http://olivetreegenealogy.com/

Lorine is the author of many published genealogical and historical
articles and books available at
http://LorineSchulze.com